This detailed watercolor is Philadelphia artist Thomas Eakins’s only major work devoted to the developing professional sport of baseball. Eakins was eager to find modern American subjects that could enlarge the tradition of historical figure painting, and sculling, sailing, swimming, and boxing offered him the opportunity to showcase superbly defined bodies. In a letter of 1875 to artist Everett Shinn, Eakins pointed out that the ballplayers were portraits of the Athletics, a Philadelphia club, at practice. They were “very fine in their build,” he told Shinn, and the scene would “admit of fine figure painting.”

Philadelphian Thomas Eakins was eager to find modern American subjects that could enlarge the tradition of historical figurative painting. Contemporary sports—-sculling, sailing, swimming, and boxing—offered him innovative themes and the opportunity to showcase highly defined bodies. RISD’s detailed watercolor is Eakins’s only major work devoted to the developing professional sport of baseball. In a letter of 1875 to artist Everett Shinn, Eakinspointed out that the ball players were portraits of Athletic boys, a Philadelphia club, at practice. They were “very fine in their build,” he told Shinn, and the scene would “admit of fine figure painting.” One of Eakins’s favored works, he exhibited it many times in the decade after its completion.

Museum of Art, Rhode Island School of Design. “Selected Works”. Providence: Museum of Art, Rhode Island School of Design, 2008.

Museum of Art, Rhode Island School of Design. “A Handbook of the Museum of Art, Rhode Island School of Design”. Providence: Museum of Art, Rhode Island School of Design, 1985.

Other publications

Guttmann, Allen. “Sports and American Art: From Benjamin West to Andy Warhol”. Boston: University of Massachusetts Press, 2011.